Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Potty Training Manipulation & Pacifiers

Okay, so blessed, blessed day: my daughter is potty trained. It is glorious. It is wonderful. I am so happy. And yet.....all of a sudden, my daughter has control over me (she learned on her first day of being potty trained). Whenever its time for her to go to bed, she always has to "try one more time.." Or whenever we're leaving a store/playgroup/anywhere...we always have to go back because she "really has to go potty." Does this happen to any of the rest of you? How do you keep yourselves from being manipulated without just saying, "Oh well...I guess you're going to have to pee your pants."

Also, I still let her wear a diaper for naptime and bedtime b/c I've heard that's normal and its a lot harder to potty train for sleeping times. Do/did any of the rest of you do that? When did you switch to underwear all the time?

On to my second subject: pacifiers. It is time for my daughter to get rid of hers. She is fully addicted. It is not healthy. A year ago we made a "pacis are only for bedtime" rule and she's done fairly well with that, but lately she's been trying to sneak them all day and when I take them away she has a total breakdown. So...we're getting rid of it. But, do any of you have any suggestions on how you got rid of your children's beloved pacis? (I know that its gonna be rough no matter what...I just figured I'd ask to see if there's any suggestions to make it a little easier...)

7 comments:

Liz said...

Ah sweet manipulation! Kids are masters, aren't they? :) Ours is potty and stories. If we're going to bed late, we'll try and skip stories, and it's like she gets those big eyes like Puss on Shrek (anyone know what I'm talking about?) and ask for scriptures. Can you deny your child scriptures? of course not! So then she gets her story time back magically. Once again, is that a bad thing?

I have lots of my patients use potty to get out of work and you just learn which are using it to escape. If they're good at the potty, then I would let them go once and then remind them after that they already went and can go after speech therapy. If they're new at the potty, then well, I'd rather have them go three times than go on my floor!! :) So, until she's consistent and reliable on the potty, I would go for it whenever she wants.

But really, who am I to say? My Meg is just NOW getting it for real, FINALLY and she's three and a half!!!!!

As for the paci, go cold turkey! Now! If she's old enough though, have a ceremony with her where you throw them all away because they're for babies. And once she's seen them go in the trash, she may understand tehat they're permanently gone. Otherwise, just let them disappear.

Good luck!

The Stump Clan said...

we are currently on about hour 40 of cold-turkeying the no paci for our 16mth old. The first night- not a sound- perfect! The next day- kind of rough- kept crying and pointing to the spot on the shelf where we used to hide them. 2nd night did well again and today so far she has been pretty good. So good luck- the first day is rough- but so far- it is not unbearable!

The Schacher Family said...

I have not potty trained but I have 3 good friends that each have 5 kids. They all tell me to jut completely get rid of diapers all together. That if they are trained they should be able to do the sleeping times. Some kids do have problems but most shouldn't from what I have heard. But definitly get a mattress cover in case!!!

Just cold turkey the binky. I did it with my son at age 1 and he was fine. Since your daughter is probably older you could try something different to help her transition. Like take her to the store to buy something with her binky. Have her hand the binky's to the clerk at check out as payment for the new item. and then the clerk can throw them away. I have heard that works well. My sister cut the tips in front of her little girl which worked because binky was broken so she knew she couldn't have it. Hope something helps.

katie said...

We took the binky away from my oldest just after she turned two, and we had her throw them in the trash. When she would ask for it, I would remind her that she threw them away. We took the binky away from my youngest just after she turned one - so much easier! Cried for 5 minutes at night, and that was it. She is actually much happier now without it! As for the diaper thing at night, we use pull-ups at night. I don't think I need to use them anymore, because she hasn't woken with a wet diaper in over a month. But in the beginning, she would wake with a wet diaper about once a week. I preferred a diaper over washing all of the bedding. Good luck!

Linz said...

We do pull-up at naptime and bedtime and they are usually wet when she wakes up, but I think a lot of kids don't have that problem. It doesn't bother me right now, she's still 2 and I don't have time to wash her bedding daily.

Pacifiers, gotta agree, just go for it. I got rid of my oldest's when she turned 2. We talked it out, she was really mad at me the morning after the first night without it, and that is about all I remember. I panicked over it forever, and in the end it wasn't too bad. So worth it too, because I see video of her from her paci days, and her front teeth are straighter now than they were then.

Bethany said...

He had been using the pacifier at nap and bedtime for about 8 or 9 months. We did the "use your pacifiers to buy a special toy". My son was 2 1/2. He did fine. His toy, a little cement mixer, was his favorite thing he HAD to have for about a week after when going to bed at night. He liked picking out a toy and "buying" it. We let him walk through the toy isles and then we picked out three that he kept going back to.

Shelbey said...

When it was time for my friend's daughter to give up her binkies/bottles, she had her package and wrap them nicely for the "Binky & Bottle Fairy" to come pick them up for new babies who needed them.